By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Yachats Farmers Market is undergoing a change of structure, but the goal of its new organizers is that the Sunday event remain exactly the same.
The market, through its website, expects to begin taking vendor applications starting Monday, March 4 for its six-month season.
Until last fall the market operated under the auspices of the Friends of the Commons, an umbrella group formed in 1995 to help with improvements to the Commons building and to help coordinate arts and cultural programs. The group disbanded in December as the city of Yachats gradually assumed a greater role in managing the facility.
But the city didn’t want to oversee the market, which had a manager but lacked its own governing board. The market had rules for vendors, but weren’t widely known.
Longtime vendor David Brownsanders of Creswell and two others approached Yachats’ facilities manager Heather Hoen this winter asking if there was a plan for 2019 – and suggested an option of vendors taking over the market. The city and its Parks and Commons Commission quickly agreed.
Although the vendors had experience with other markets, Hoen passed along board and bylaw information collected from other Oregon markets.
“In the long run we hope to be exactly the same,” said Brownsanders.
The vendors are in the process of getting insurance and investigating the best ways to organize themselves. But there will be a governing board to craft and adopt bylaws and oversee a market manager, and jurors to screen prospective vendors, said Brownsanders.
“We have a whole lot of ‘What ifs’ right now,” he said. “It’s an easy thing to do, but we just need to codify it under a new umbrella organization.”
Organizers also want to improve management and communication. In addition to finding a manager, the organizers will seek vendors to serve on the board.
“We need to find help,” he said. “So there will have to be other people involved.”
Brownsanders, who does glasswork, said “staying the same” means attracting 30-35 vendors with a 50-50 mix of farm and arts and craft sales. A note on the market’s website says rules, fees and requirements would be posted as soon as they are ironed out. It also said “Returning vendors booth space seniority would be maintained.” The market opens Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 12 and runs through October.
And the name won’t change.
“We’re just vendors trying to find a way to keep this good thing going,” he said.
